LINGAYEN, Pangasinan – The provincial government of Pangasinan has expressed support to the campaign of the Department of Health (DOH) on the proper and responsible use of antibiotics.
In a community advocacy event conducted by the DOH at the Provincial Training and Development Center on November 18, Provincial Health Officer Cielo Almoite assured the all-out support of the provincial administration to help advance the causes of antibiotics awareness.
Dr. Almoite bared that in all provincial government – run district and community hospitals, the responsible use of antibiotics is strictly implemented based on DOH’s order.
Urging Pangasinenses to support antibiotics awareness, DOH Senior Health Program Officer Anne Julienne Genuino said that health threats and bad effects which the “unguarded” use of antibiotic will be avoided through antibiotic awareness.
An antibiotic is a medicine which is used to treat serious infections which include pneumonia, tubercolosis, blood poisoning and gonorrhea.
“What we are avoiding is the anti-microbial resistance which is a phenomenon when microbes causing infections become stronger than antibiotics,” Genuino told hundreds of participants of the community advocacy event held in observance of the 2016 Philippine Antibiotic Awareness Week.
Genuine likewise warned the public on the consumption of over-the-counter antibiotics, citing a law passed since 1989 which prohibits the dispensing or selling of antibiotics without prescription from medical doctors.
“Consultation to a doctor is required before you can use antibiotics,” she reiterated.
The DOH official, however, assured that the drugstores group in the country has vowed to support the DOH on its antibiotics awareness campaign.
The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) which monitors drugstores has also become stricter on its monitoring to sanction drugstores which continue to sell over-the-counter antibiotics.
Worst sanctions that could be slapped to erring drugstores after series of FDA warnings will be the closure of the establishment and cancellation of license to operate while the erring pharmacist may also face a consequence in his/her professional career.
By Dexter A. See
